Homesick
by Her Head In the Clouds
Summary: As Alex rides down the highway, she thinks about those she's with, and those she's temporarily leaving behind...


_A/n: ~The first of many TEP fanfictions! Just got into the show and finished watching the last episode of the first season yesterday on the Family Channel and can I say that if Canada hasn't already fallen in love with this show, then it should seriously get on board with that. :) Well here's a sort-of drabble to get the creativity ball rolling. Happy reading!_

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><p><em><strong>Family<strong>_

_**July 13, 2011**_

_**by: Her Head in the Clouds**_

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><p>It was a horrible ride, and they hadn't even gotten to their destination. The car was musty, it smelt of her dad's old tools and the luggage bags that had been kept in the basement for years were giving off a musty smell. Her sister was quiet for once with her earbuds playing, what was likely to be, obnoxious classical dance music down her ear canal. Her mom ranted in the front passengers seat about motherly chores and tasks to do when they reached the hotel, and Dad, good old Dad was just singing horribly off-key to one if his own ripped CD's of old country. But Alex, despite being trapped against her will with only the open windows to be her only window to be what seemed like freedom, she was content because everything felt perfect.<p>

When Dad had suggested some downtime away from the city, their work, (unbeknownst to them, the 'princess stuff'), and their friends for just some family togetherness, she was all but for it until cornered persuasion and a little piece of morality chewed her in the back of her head. What was two weeks compared to all the days she spent in her garage and her bedroom (not to mention another magical dimension) that she couldn't give her parents, and save for her sister, the extra attention they needed? They were the best caregivers in her mind's eye and she owed that much to them. A simple vacation in a four-star hotel wouldn't kill her.

When a particularly strong gust of wind blew the brown locks into her eyelashes, she pulled them away with a flick and grinned to her Dad from the front. She commented on a question he asked her Mum (indirectly insulting him no doubt) before earning a laugh and easing back into her seat. The Australian outback was rolling for miles and miles out beyond their car. Alex smiled.

Amanda and Marcus would be all right; J.B. wasn't even a concern, what with his usual antics. She'd bring them home some t-shirts, a couple of goofy pictures, and they'd be set. It was Kuru who was the one that she should be concerned about.

What with his upbringing of severe loyalty and commitment to get tasks and commands done, trying to get him to understand the concept of "family togetherness" was something he didn't take direction well in. Sure, in the months he'd been staying with them he was already 'like' family, and he did have a valid point (a sacred royal valid point) in his means to always be present and protect her.

Alex smiled; Kuru could be such a geek sometimes.

But he meant well, and so did she and her family. They would not be going far, they'd be back by the second Sunday, and Alex would surely have all her limbs intact and her royal titles maintained. So when he reluctantly agreed after the hurried approval of the elders, she worried more about him than herself when the trip was really happening.

As she thought about it more, Alex continued staring off into space.

What did Kuru do when off work from is duty to her? Was he attending to someone else? Hopefully, not her beast of a cousin. Was he working other servant tasks in the palace? Or perhaps he had the leisure of taking a vacation too? Maybe he was with friends and eating those royal dates or collecting those royal coins he cherished so much...

And as Alex continued to stare out into the highway and half-think about what pair of flip flops to wear to the pool and what food they might be eating in the restaurant tonight, she could certainly picture Kuru just napping under a large tree with Anala wrapping him around her trunk. She looked up into the clouds as they moved by in the fast breeze.

Suddenly thinking about them in another dimension, beyond the summer clouds and time and space, she wondered what the two of them might be doing at this very moment. As she sat in a car miles away from her house, the only place Anala would know where to come back, Alex suddenly became a little homesick.

But only for a bit.

It wasn't like she had two families.

Although... she began to think she might as well.

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><p><em>Much love, Abby~<em>


End file.
